Furyk: Play with a chip on our shoulder and we can win Ryder Cup
AMERICAN Ryder Cup captain Jim Furyk will urge his players to forget their recent team success and play with ‘a chip on our shoulder’ when the biennial match is staged in Paris next year. Rather than pat his men on the back for walloping the Internationals at the Presidents Cup last month and beating Europe at Hazeltine last year, Furyk will remind them that it is 25 years since an American team last won an away Ryder Cup. ‘Yes, we’ve had a good run but you’ll find that before the last Ryder Cup we lost three matches in a row, while it’s been a bunch of years since we won in Europe,’ he said. ‘When we set up our taskforce a few years ago to look at where we were going wrong, one of the goals was to win again in Europe, and that’s the next frontier. We need to accomplish that to validate our progress.’ Asked about the latest news that Tiger Woods has been given the all-clear to resume practice ‘without restrictions’, Furyk confirmed he would like to see him in the team room in some capacity. ‘He’s such a valuable resource,’ he said. Furyk was speaking against the spectacular backdrop of the Eiffel Tower during a ‘year to go’ promotional jaunt. After dinner at the Palace of Versailles on Monday night, Furyk and his opposite number Thomas Bjorn had breakfast with French president Emmanuel Macron, before hitting golf balls off the lower platform of Gustav Eiffel’s famous creation, on to the gardens of the Champ de Mars. ‘It’s fair to say we’ve been blown away by the hospitality shown,’ said Furyk. In response to a question about the high quality of the American team, Bjorn pointed out that European players presently occupy 11 of the top 21 places in the world rankings. ‘I’m not sure we’ve ever had that sort of strength in numbers before,’ said the Dane. Asked by Sportsmail if there was a Patrick Reed-type figure among the rookies likely to make the team, Bjorn replied: ‘You’re setting me up with that one, aren’t you?’ He then talked glowingly about man of the moment Tyrrell Hatton. ‘He plays with such fire in his belly and is so fearless, if he makes the team you’d just think to yourself: “Yeah, I’m so glad you’re here”.’